LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Wadya Wellesley BELL-TOWERS
Service No: 400010
Born: Clifton Hill VIC, 17 August 1908
Enlisted in the RAAF: 28 April 1940
Unit: No. 102 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Topcliffe
Died: Air Operations: (No. 102 Squadron Whitley aircraft Z6829), Netherlands, 15 August 1941, Aged 32 Years
Buried: Terschelling (West-Terschelling) General Cemetery, Friesland, Netherlands
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Henry Linacre Bell-Towers and Isabel Marion Bell-Towers; husband of Merla Bell Towers, of Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Melbourne VIC
Remembered: Panel 118, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2218 hours on the night of 14 August 1941Whitley Z6829 took off from Topcliffe detailed to carry out a raid on Hanover, Germany. Nothing was heard from the aircraft after take-off and it failed to return to base. The aircraft was shot down by a night fighter and crashed at 0448 hours in the Waddenzee south of Terschelling. Four of the crew members were killed and two became Prisoners of War.
The crew members of Z6829 were:
Pilot Officer Wadya Wellesley Bell-Towers (400010) (Observer)
Flight Sergeant Louis Edward David Lindsay (905091) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator)
Sergeant Frank Wallace Penn (400233) (Second Pilot) PoW, Discharged from the RAAF: 24 January 1946
Sergeant Richard Thomas Philp (997009) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Gerald Keith Powell (920529) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Thomas Albert Vermiglio (1053112) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) PoW
A later PoW report by the then Warrant Officer Penn stated: “the aircraft was attacked by an Me110. I was wounded in the first attack with four bullet wounds in the right foot. The second attack started a fire near the escape hatch and I extinguished it. The third attack destroyed all the controls and the Captain ordered bale out. I heard an acknowledgement from the Rear Gunner, but was told later he had baled out immediately. I don’t know if he was hit. I baled out. The aircraft was on fire again and out of control making a diving turn to left. There were still four in the aircraft when I left – the Captain, Observer and two WAGS. The aircraft crashed at Texel Holland, and those four were still in the aircraft when it crashed. I was picked up by the Germans soon after I came down. I later met the Rear Gunner in a POW Camp.”
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/59/32